1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of decontamination of nuclear reactor primary systems. More specifically, it relates to a unique method of qualifying a chemical decontamination process for chemical decontamination of within nuclear reactor primary systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The problem of excessive personnel exposures caused by high background radiation levels in a nuclear reactor primary system, such as in pressurized water reactor (PWR) systems, and the resultant economic cost of requiring personnel rotation to minimize individual exposure is significant at many nuclear plants. These background levels are principally due to the buildup of corrosion products in certain areas of the plant. The buildup of corrosion products exposes workers to high radiation levels during routine maintenance and refueling outages. The long term prognosis is that personnel exposure levels will continue to increase.
As a nuclear power plant operates, the surfaces in the core and primary system corrode. Corrosion products, referred to as crud, are activated by transport of the corroded material to the core region by the reactor coolant system (RCS). Subsequent release of the activated crud and redeposition elsewhere in the system produces radiation fields in piping and components throughout the primary system, thus increasing radiation levels throughout the plant. The activity of the corrosion product deposits is predominately due to Cobalt 58 and Cobalt 60. It is estimated that 80-90% of personnel radiation exposure can be attributed to these elements.
One way of controlling worker exposure, and of dealing with this problematic situation, is to periodically decontaminate the nuclear steam supply system using chemicals, thereby removing a significant fraction of the corrosion product oxide films. A major concern, however, is the potential for removing base material from the fuel, equipment, piping, and instrumentation of the RCS and causing significant degradation that may adversely impact the function, design capability, or life of the RCS. As a result, prior techniques had done very little to decontaminate the primary system as a whole, typically focusing only on the heat exchanger (steam generator) channel heads.
Two different chemical processes, referred to as LOMI (developed in England under a joint program by EPRI and the Central Electricity Generating Board) and CAN-DEREM (developed by Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd.), have been used for small scale decontamination in the past. These processes are multi-step operations, in which various chemicals are injected, recirculated, and then removed by ion-exchange. Although the chemicals are designed to dissolve the corrosion products, some particulates are also generated. One method of chemical decontamination, focusing on the chemistry of decontamination, is disclosed in U.K. Patent Application No. GB 2 085 215 A (Bradbury et al.). There is little disclosure, however, of the methodology to be used in applying that chemistry to system decontamination.
While these chemical processes had typically been used on only a localized basis, use of these chemical processes is now being considered for possible application on a large scale, full system chemical decontamination. Certain methods of integrating such chemical decontamination systems into nuclear reactor primary systems are described in co-pending Application Ser. No. 07/621,120 entitled "System For Chemical Decontamination Of Nuclear Reactor Primary Systems," and co-pending Application Serial No. 07/621,129, entitled "Clean-up Sub-system For Chemical Decontamination Of Nuclear Reactor Primary Systems," both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The need for evaluating the feasibility of performing the chemical decontamination within the reactor as a whole was not realized until full system decontamination was considered. Before a full system decontamination process can be used in a nuclear power plant facility, it must be determined that the decontamination process chemicals and/or clean-up sub-system have no harmful effect on the components and piping used in the nuclear power plant that such chemicals and clean-up sub-system will come into contact with.
While some work has been done in the boiling water reactor (BWR) programs to assess feasibility of reactor decontamination, the BWR scenarios examined by those in the field involved decontaminating fuel assemblies in sipping cans employing commercial processes at off-normal decontamination process conditions with little regard for the effects of temperature, pressure, and flow that would be mandated by an actual application of the process to the full reactor system. Subsequent to the decontamination, the fuel assemblies were shipped to a hot cell facility for non-destructive and destructive examinations.
As a result of the examination of potential full-system decontamination, a need now exists for an economic and accurate technique to assess the feasibility of employing chemical decontamination processes to remove crud from primary systems without adversely affecting the integrity of the components and piping during further reactor operation.